Ontario plans to stop funding high dose opioids

The public health insurance programme in Canada’s most populous province, Ontario, will stop paying for high dose opioids in an effort to improve clinical outcomes and reduce the growing burden of opioid addiction.

The drugs due to be delisted are morphine 200 mg tablets; hydromorphone 24 mg and 30 mg capsules, sold under the brand name Hydromorph Contin; fentanyl 75 microgram/hr and 100 microgram/hr patches; and meperidine (Demerol) 50 mg tablets.

From January 2017 these will not be funded, even under the Exceptional Access Program …